Always Remembered

UFF/UDA/UYM (North Down, 2nd battalion, D company) memorial mural in Bloomfield estate, Bangor, to Andrew McIlvenny and Roy Officer, with hooded gunmen on a bed of poppies flanking the UFF clenched fist.

The estate is also home to UVF murals, e.g. We Band Of Brothers.

Ballyree Drive, Bangor

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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We Band Of Brothers

“For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” This is a new (July 2014) Red Hand Commando mural in Bangor with RHC Youth and Red Hand Comrades Association insignia against a backdrop of Thiepval Tower and the Somme, with masked gunmen in the foreground and a border of poppies.

The quote is from Shakespeare’s Henry V, act 4, though the lines are reversed (Folger).

Ballyminetragh Gardens, Bangor

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Loyalist Lower Shankill

Welcome to the loyalist lower Shankill, and specifically the UDA (2nd battalion, C company) lower Shankill.

However, these are somewhat peripheral locations, in California Close, Boundary Way, and Hopewell Crescent. The centre of the estate has been re-imaged a second time – see Lower Shankill Angels.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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The Great War

The memorial garden in Mount Vernon, which previously had and Ulster Volunteers mural and UVF stone, has undergone a major redevelopment this year (2015) with a new “cut-out” mural to the 36th (Ulster) Division and stand-alone memorial plaques to six UVF (3rd Belfast Battalion) members who were listed the plaque on the outside wall of the garden. “Murdered in the service of Ulster: Joe Shaw 18-5-1974, Samuel Frame 13-3-1976, Jackie Irvine 16-3-1989. Colin Caldwell 28-11-1991, Bertie Rice 31-10-2000, Mark Quail 1-11-2000.”

“We salute also all volunteers at home and on the mainland who served with dignity and pride.”

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Covenants Without Swords Are Only Words

“Covenants without swords are only words” is a slight emendation of a line from Chapter 17 of Thomas Hobbes’s The Leviathan: “And covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.” 

It is applied here to the 1912 Ulster Covenant being backed up by the 1914 gun-running. Edward Carson is shown acknowledging the cheers of the Ulster Volunteers, who have been drilling at Glencairn (as seen in this Shankill mural).

Above the Unionist souvenir shop on the Newtownards Road, east Belfast. Seen previously in 2012: Where Ulstermen Shop.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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The Lurgan Ambush

On the evening of November 21, 1982, the car in which IRA volunteers Eugene Toman, Sean Burns, and Gervaise [here spelled “Gervase” and elsewhere “Gervais”] McKerr were travelling was hit by 109 bullets and all three were killed. They were perhaps the first victims of the “shoot to kill” policy. (An Phoblacht)

“Lurgan town was rocked with sorrow/On that bleak November day/Hushed tones and tears were mingled/When great numbers stopped to pray” – these are the opening lines of Ida Green’s poem ‘The Lurgan Ambush’, a poem by Ita Green [set to music at Irish Folk Songs | sung by Bo Loughran on youtube].

Levin Road, Kilwilkie, Lurgan

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Republican Kilwilkie

Here is a gallery of images from Levin Road in Kilwilkie, Lurgan, including “One Ireland, one vote – 1916 Societies [web]”, “People Should Not Inform”, “RUC – PSNI not welcome”, “Join RSF [web] – Éıre Nua”, “IRA”, “IRPWA” [web], “End internment now”, “End the isolation of republican POWs”, “RUC – PSNI different name, same aim”, and “Ka-boom” from an RPG slamming into the side of the post office.

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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Welcome To Hell!!

These graffiti are at the western edge of the Village, south Belfast, at the waste-ground over the Blackstaff and next to the Balls On The Falls, a.k.a Rise (on the Broadway roundabout).

“B Coy UFV Village”, Monarch UVF VTOT [Village team on tour]”, “Taigs enter at own risk”, “ATAT [All Taigs are target]”, “Welcome to loyalist Village”, “Taigs will be crucified”, “Welcome to hell!!”

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Copyright © 2015 Peter Moloney
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